- I have read a lot from Maffetone, I have NEVER send a recommendation from him of 50g of carbs or less per day. I have only seen comments that the typical western diet with over 250g of carbs per day is too much, far too much. He advises for each individual to find what is best for them. I have also never seen him recommend a ketogenic diet. I have done his two week test, which I highly recommend, as it creates a great base line for determining what foods work for you, and what don’t. Ultimately, while I have no interest in counting carbs, or calories- on periodic checks I have found I do quite well on 100- 125g per day (roughly 25% of total calories). I also had great results from increasing my dietary fat, which now is typically 50-60% of my calories. Knee and joint aches and pains which I had assumed were age related have all gone away. I was regularly getting 2-3 significant colds/illnesses per year, and I have not had even one in 2 + years after revising my diet to lower carb, higher fat- NOT ketogenic! Lastly, you really should look at the details of his study with Dr. Amanda Stevens. Medical doctor, professional triathlete. She has done amazing things post 39 years old, on a much lower carb diet than I can tolerate.
Perhaps we can find agreement in too few carbs, AND too many carbs are both not good. The right amount seems to be in the your results may vary category! Ultimately, I have found that something along the lines of what our species ate for 98% of our existence works best for me- 20-30% carbs, 50-60% fats, the balance protein, and of course getting as much of this as possible from real, non processed food :-)

I am fan of P.Jacobs and I don't think anyone will really know what has happened to him in terma of hia professional career post his Kona win. Hopefully, PJ can come back and at least have a few more solid results before he chooses to end his career as I loved his racing style.

I don't think it is fair or accurate to put Luke McKenzie in the same category as P.Jacobs as he didn't win Kona, but 2nd is amazing. He has had a fair number of iron & 1/2 iron distance wins and podiums, including one Ironman win last year. While not as good as some other professionals, he's still a top tier male professional long course triathlete, especially when one takes into account it os combined with his other business ventures (Island House triathlon and Wynn Republic). While definitely in the last part of his professional career he is still a legitimate threat for the win at any iron distance race he wants to win if he is fit, regardless of the competition. P.Jacobs, unfortunately for him, has an extremely unfortunate career with the highest of highs and way too long in the lowest of lows.

By the way, well said Jeff.

Many thanks for chiming in Jeff.

Once had the opportunity to meet Pete and his wife in Dubai and he was so down to earth and open to having a chat and talking about his experiences, it was really refreshing to meet a world champion that had no ego and was just a really cool dude. I am definitely rooting for his recovery and his happiness in life and would be awesome to see him race and do well again, and if he does not race I am certain he will add great contributions to the sport of triathlon and for future generations.

Do your research on Pete and you will find he had a history of dealing with fatigue that gradually got worse as did I and when no one can offer a solution and you've exhausted all ideas you become desperate looking for answers and will try anything. I was beginning to start following his diet from about a year ago as he was saying it helped and as he was starting to get competitive again. Eventually they found I had an intestinal parasite and it took a while to get rid of but now I feel night and day fatigue that over the years got worse and worse are gone. There were points he thought it was mental as did I when there seems to be no answer so it is easy for people like you to make judgements without knowing all the facts on someone so desperate for their health to return.

Thanks for tarnishing the name of an athlete for no reason. I don't condone drug cheats but to drag Luke into this based on that evidence with him passing every drug test and so many years apart is pretty shit. Funny how three girls got done for the same drug in the one year and one proved that the salt tablets she used were tainted so his wife drug positive is also a pretty thin but yes she was caught with it in her system what 5 years later. How you link the two is a joke. Either someone is a drug cheat or they aren't. Do we accuse Lange because he runs so fast? Why are there so many fast Germans in Ironman do the math. Seems legit based on your thinking... Innocent until proven guilty.

Nope not innocent until proven guilty, at least not when it comes to doping. That ship has long since sailed. Sad for the very small minority of accused athletes that are innocent, but they pay the price because of the thousands of fellow athletes who have been caught doping and tainted their particularly sport. The likes of Froome and Wiggins don't get the benefit of the doubt. Re the 3 women who tested positive for Ostarine, in Beth McKenzie's case, she supplied WADA with the "contaminated" sample after testing positive, hardly an independent, objective test. And if Beth did indeed dope, there is a good chance Luke doped. Again as unfortunate as it is, he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. I have no problem at all with BrentwoodTriGuy's speculative post.

Edit:


Where did the samples come from? Her? Or were the samples obtained independently of Lauren Barnett?

There is a good chance Luke doped??? He had only just started seeing Beth when he placed that Kona. No other link five years later so watching sport must be pretty sad for you and your doubts over any athletic performance.

I’m speculating, I could be completely wrong. But you look at any busted female athlete whose partner is an athlete, invariably their partner has doped. Michelle Smith, Marion Jones etc

Yes, he did actually recommend to Pete to only consume small amounts of honey during training and racing, this ridiculously low intake make Pete highly ketogenic.
I spoke to him on this but he was confident in Maffetones methods.

Please don't call what Phil has done research, it's nothing of the sort.

Also, Amanda Stevens was clever enough to not go ketogenic, and uses upwards of 100kcal of carbs per hour in ironman, which is low but not keto.

You have made the critical distinction between low carb and protein.
When exercising there is a need for carbs, as without them the body starts shutting down non-essential practice, this can impact on hormones, but it's pretty low. Really really low.
So that's why LOW carb can work.
You can probably get away with 50-100g and still be ok. But when you dip below that you start causing problems, I know this because I am part of the keto research!

Exogenous Ketones only work with lots of carbs around, why? Because they are effectively a starvation signal. So they tell the body to conserve and protect all over the shop, that's why they can be muscle/protein sparing as they stop non-essential breakdown.

But like protein when you consistently fall under your requirements day on day then 6-12months down the line you have problems.

Now, I'm not saying this is what happened to Pete. But he is a great athlete, had lot of health problems and sorted them, THEN took it too far based on Maffs advice.

Maff got one thing right we DONT need sugar, but apart from that the anti-carb stance is silly, as is anti-gluten, anti-dairy etc. The so called intolerance to these is likely a messed up gut microbiome.

The thing is when it came to race Pete was fierce and extremely aggressive . One of the things I never forgot was when he raced Im Malaysia one year he struggled with cramps on the run he was screeming with pain and slapped his face hard and I mean really hard. urging himself on to keep going .
and yet before the race he seemed to be very relaxed.
After 2012 he made some intersting decisons but as you say it's not that uncommon that once you achieve a lifetime goal it gets harder and with his fatigue issues it must have been tough. And must have cost even more energy to climb that mountain in the first place.
Still I wonder had he waited a few years before going long would that have helped or would he then never made it?

Agree with most of your comments except-

- you state that Amanda “cleverly” avoided ketosis by consuming 100 kcal carbs per hour, which you state as the minimum needed. This is 25 g of carbs. You then state that anything below 50 g - 100 g of carbs per hour is too low, and cannot work. This is either a typing error, or a serious math error! You are also failing to acknowledge that Amanda was doing this as part of a closely monitored study with Maffetone, and her carb intake was clearly both known and approved by him.
- You state that Maffetone is anti carb, and this is simply not true. Maffetone correctly recognizes that carbs and sugars are metabolized in exactly the same way, and that TOO HIGH a level of carbs/sugars is a problem. Based on your statements you seem to agree with this. If you are going to trash someone, and least be fair about it. Phil Maffetone simply does NOT promote a keto diet for everyone, or even most people. His statements are very consistent in regard to low (low being based on the current cultural norm of much too high) carbs. I completely agree with you on the dangers of a keto diet, or any other fad, restrictive diet. I am pretty sure that you, I, and Maffetone can all agree that the current over consumption of carbs/sugars- particularly those void in nutrition (such as energy gels...) are not good for your long term health :-)

You are quite the intense one.

I know Pete very well personally, I worked with him from 2007 through to 2012, some of the diet stuff he's played with over the past few years were not considered between 2007 and 2012 - during that time he ate a variety of different foods - he stayed at our house on many occasions - two weeks before winning Kona in 2012 he had a pretty impressive 100km time trial and after we all went to the bakery and he ate two Aussie meat pies

It's sad to see what has happened over the past 5yrs - knowing him really well I believe he still has all the talent, but these days he feels too much pressure. As a guy he's more emotionally driven than many of his competitors, he has to be happy to perform well.

I personally think he's too far off the track now to ever come back and win Kona, but hey he has won, not many can say that. We all know how many things we have to get right to put together a good Ironman, but a Kona winning Ironman is as difficult to get right as a lunar landing.

I think when he totally gives up the dream of ever winning Kona again, it will open the door to release his spirit to go onto winning performances in other races. Every weekend I see athletes with less talent than Pete winning triathlons. He's at the bottom now and the only way up is to start at the bottom.

You didn't need to post this. We know it.

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